Monday belongs to Karri Ramo, the two-time KHL all-star who will get the start — and is expected to go the distance — in a pre-season showdown with the New York Rangers at the Saddledome (7 p.m., Sportsnet Fan960).

Joey MacDonald will be Ramo’s backup against the Blueshirts, while Reto Berra, who is trying to get comfortable in North America after five seasons in Switzerland’s National League, will likely be between the pipes for Wednesday’s exhibition finale against the Phoenix Coyotes.

After that, the next item on the calendar is the club’s Oct. 3 season-opener against the Washington Capitals in D.C.

From the crew of Berra, MacDonald and Ramo, somebody will be selected to face shots from Alex Ovechkin & Co. that night.

“It’s not my decision — it’s not anything I have to think about,” Ramo said. “It’s the guys upstairs and the coaching staff who thinks about who they feel the most comfortable with. You just want to do your best every day, so hopefully, they’re going to choose you and give trust to you.

“But I don’t think about if I’m the guy.”

Signed to a two-year, US$5.5-million deal despite not having appeared in an NHL game since April 11, 2009, with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Ramo arrived at training camp as the odds-on favourite to be the guy.

MacDonald, with parts of seven NHL campaigns on his resume and an 8-9-1 record for the Flames last winter, is the known commodity.

Berra, who raised eyebrows around the hockey world with a shutout win over Team USA at the world championship but seems the likely candidate to start the season at AHL Abbotsford because of his two-way, entry-level contract, is the darkhorse.

“They’re all in the same boat right now,” Hartley insisted. “I can’t say that one is ahead of the other. It’s a three-man battle.”

Ramo, who’ll be in the crease at the Dome for the first time after pre-season starts in Edmonton and Regina, will get an opportunity to separate himself in Monday’s meeting with the Rangers.

Hartley might occasionally toss and turn at night as he tries to sort out his netminding scenario, but the 27-year-old from Finland isn’t losing any sleep over it.

In fact, Ramo doesn’t expect this storyline to go away anytime soon.

“I don’t know if that is going to change at any point in the next few years here. It’s going to always be the same thing about the goalies. That’s what hockey is, and there’s always going to be, especially in Canada, talk about it,” Ramo said.

“If you focus on it right now, I think you’re going to be focusing on it for the whole year.”

Monday belongs to Karri Ramo, the two-time KHL all-star who will get the start — and is expected to go the distance — in a pre-season showdown with the New York Rangers at the Saddledome (7 p.m., Sportsnet Fan960).

Joey MacDonald will be Ramo’s backup against the Blueshirts, while Reto Berra, who is trying to get comfortable in North America after five seasons in Switzerland’s National League, will likely be between the pipes for Wednesday’s exhibition finale against the Phoenix Coyotes.